#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Documentary Tells The Story Of Chester Upland Schools.
When U.S, schools entered the age of test-centered accountability, one of the arguments in favor of massive testing was that it would allow leaders to target schools for assistance and support. Chester Upland is a fine example of how that simply didn’t happen.
In 1994, CUSD was named the lowest performer in the state. Instead of assistance, what they got was a series of state-appointed receivers and assorted private companies brought in to profit from CUSD’s struggles. None of it helped. Financial crises came one after another.
Warrington Middle School faces shutdown if charter school contract isn’t finalized
The challenges at Warrington Middle School are well documented. The school failed to get the C grade needed to avoid transition to a charter school.
The school district now has a contract waiting to be signed with Charter Schools USA.
KIPP St. Louis High School closes for two weeks after weapons found on campus
Classes at KIPP St. Louis High School were canceled this week and will move online for another week to tighten security after weapons were found on campus.
A student brought a gun Friday to the charter school at 706 North Jefferson Avenue in the Downtown West neighborhood, the third time a weapon has been discovered this fall.
A Harpswell charter school will close at the end of the school year
One of Maine’s first charter schools will close by the end of the school year.
State law requires five of the seven members of the Maine Charter School Commission to vote to renew a charter school’s contract. But the Harpswell Coastal Academy was only able to secure four votes at a meeting on Tuesday, meaning it will be the first charter school in the state to close its doors.
Alabama charter school Legacy Prep needed $250,000 to keep running, state says
Prior to an audit that discovered Birmingham charter school Legacy Prep misspent as much as $311,000 of funds over a two-year period, state education officials were at the table with school officials because of money trouble.
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey told AL.com that school officials contacted him in September 2021 asking for help meeting payroll. Without the state’s financial help, they said, they might have had to lay off teachers at the kindergarten through fourth grade school.
NC virtual charter schools continue to have poor performance yet high demand
In their five years of operation, both virtual charter schools have been consistently given a D-score on North Carolina’s school report cards based on their students’ test scores. The two schools have failed to “meet growth” on standardized tests and have been labeled continually low-performing, as students lag behind the state average for grade level proficiency.
Ann Arbor charter school closes as legal battle with former management company continues
An Ann Arbor charter school that lost its authorization while in the midst of a legal battle with its former management company is among four Michigan charter academies that have closed this year.
Ann Arbor Learning Community, which is alleged in a lawsuit to have failed to pay hundreds of thousands in fees to its former management company, Global Education Excellence, did not enroll students this fall after it was informed by Eastern Michigan University in November 2021 that it would not renew its charter when it expired in June 2022.
REVEALED: As state board overrules Metro Schools, commissioner expresses hope for charter schools statewide
During the Wednesday session, commissioners rejected concerns from Metro Schools that the new KIPP schools would interfere with their own plans in the Antioch and Cane Ridge communities, including two new charter schools that are slated to open.
The commission said KIPP Nashville has a proven record and high demand for its approach to educating children.
Parent-sponsored dance organized for students turned away over dress code violations
Parents of students who attend the American Leadership Academy in Spanish Fork are making preparations for a makeup dance after some students who attended the charter school’s homecoming dance were not allowed entrance over dress code violations.
Former Concord Charter School Founder, Trustee To Pay $80K Settlement
The founder and a trustee of what was Concord’s only public charter school accused of questionable disbursements and misappropriation of funds have reached an agreement with a trustee of the school in a bankruptcy filing.
Stephanie Alicea, the former founder of Capital City Public Charter School, and former trustee Caroletta Alicea, a state representative and Democrat from Boscawen, have agreed to make two $40,000 payments during the next six months to Michael Askenaizer, a trustee of the estate for the school.
REVEALED: Tennessee charter school commission accused of ‘enormous conflict of interest’
The charter school commission isn’t composed of school superintendents, school board members or teachers. It’s an unelected group of true-blue believers in charter schools, and even some Republicans are starting to question whether they should have such power.
Rafael expected he would go to a university — the system never did
This is a story about one student’s high expectations for himself, and the people who didn’t share them: the educators who put him on a non-university path, the public charter school that never questioned it, and the state that keeps funding schools with low graduation rates and little accountability.
Charter schools got $1.4B from the state last year. They don’t always have to say how it’s spent.
Michigan’s state Board of Education sent out 278 Freedom of Information Act requests earlier this year to charter schools and traditional school districts, too, asking for copies of a few common contracts.
It was a test of financial transparency, an effort to find out whether charter schools, which got $1.4 billion in state money last year, would give an adequate account of how that money was being spent.
Utah students protested body-shaming after homecoming dress code. Now their teacher is calling them a ‘mob.’
A teacher at a Utah charter school chastised students for protesting a dress code they felt body-shamed girls at their homecoming dance, suggesting that the students overreacted and formed a “mob” when they were the ones “intentionally pushing the limit.”
Nashville charter schools seek financing from Arizona
Two Nashville charter schools have ventured to Arizona for bond financing as recently as this year.
Why it matters: Pathways to out-of-state funding help charter school leaders avoid skeptics involved in local funding decisions.